On Thursday Colorado leaves the Big 12 to join the Pac 10. On Friday Nebraska joins the Big Ten. The Big 12 is left with 10 teams. The Pac 10 now has 11 teams. The Big Ten now has 12 teams. It’s enough to make calculus seem easy.

Truth in AdvertisingIs it time to force conferences to change their names to match the number of teams? Are countless school children having trouble with math because of college football conferences? Usually if it is “for the children” politicians will line up behind the cause. Will there soon be hearings on capital hill to fix this national crisis?

Nebraska OnlyI have to ask the question. Is this all there is? The Big Ten has gotten their 12 teams so they can now stage that championship game. No major shakeup to the college football universe by going to 16 teams. What about Missouri, Rutgers, Syracuse, or Notre Dame?

Why Nebraska?Does it expand the Big Ten eastward? No. Does it add significant households to the Big Ten Network? No. Is it a “premier” research institution? Maybe, but it doesn’t really raise the conference’s standing in this area. Does it have a storied football program that is trying to resurrect itself? Yes. I’m not sure that there is much in this for the Big Ten other than a 12th team.

It’s easy to see why Nebraska made the move. Last year each Big 12 team got around $10 million from the conference TV contracts. In 2009, each Big Ten team was getting around $20 million. Nebraska just doubled their TV revenue.

This is nice for Nebraska, but the amount of revenue for each team in the Big Ten will actually fall because of the move. The conference pulled in around $220 million in TV revenue. With Nebraska bringing along negligible TV households that $220 million needs to be split again. Each school’s share will be dropping by around $1.7 million. In order to keep revenues as they are now, the new championship game is going to have to generate nearly $20 million in additional revenue. As an example, in 2009 the SEC championship game generated $14.3 million.

So why did the Big Ten add Nebraska, did they need another “Red” team? You can almost make a whole division of schools whose school colors include some form of red.